The Line That Binds (23 page)

He stared at LJ through the windshield, lips pinched together, as he turned the SUV’s engine off. I’d met happy Carson the other day and he seemed nice enough, but given the twisted look on his face now, I had a feeling I was about to meet an angry Mr. Wayde.
Great. Is she not allowed to ride on someone’s bike?
If not, the fact that he’s letting Gavin learn to ride would be pretty jacked up.

“Ben,” he addressed me with a stiff nod, closing his car door. “LJ, you need to go inside, now.”

I couldn’t tell which one of us he intended to chew out. There was a possibility he’d cut loose on both of us. But LJ didn’t deserve to catch shit for the bike ride. I initiated it. Besides, she had an excellent reason to leave; though, that was a separate battle, and not mine to fight. “Mr. Wayde, I’m the one who offered the ride,” I started to explain but he cut in.

“LJ, I need to talk to you now. Inside,” he said, making it clear he wanted me out of the conversation.

“No, Dad,” she responded. “I’m not going in yet. And I don’t see how you could be upset with me for getting a ride home when you’re the one who forgot to pick me up,” she said firmly.

Gavin hopped out of the passenger side. He was prepared to run up the slate steps to the house until LJ and I caught a glimpse of his face. His left eye was red and nearly swollen shut. The soft spot under his eye had already started to bruise.

LJ ran over and spun him around. “What the hell happened to you?”

“Nothing. I had a fight. No big deal.”

“No big deal? Your face looks like baboon’s butt. What happened?”

“Some kid didn’t like me asking his ex-girlfriend out.” He shrugged and adjusted his backpack on his shoulder.

“You asked someone out?” she asked.

“Yeah, I guess everyone’s having a hard time believing it,” he responded gruffly.

“No, I just … I just …” She stopped and pressed both hands to her temples. “Not now,” she said, smacking the sides of her head.

“LJ, get in the house,” Carson barked from behind her.

“No,” she spat, still facing Gavin.

“Fine,” Carson interrupted her. “If you want to hear it out here, fine. Why on earth would you ride on a bike today?”

“Why not? I didn’t exactly have another way home!”

I moved forward to speak, but Carson spoke again before I had a chance to interject. “You fainted, LJ. The message I got from the school said that you passed out in the cafeteria.”

“You passed out today?” I jumped into the conversation.

“Wait, Gavin.” She ignored me and Carson, grabbing Gavin’s arm before he could leave.

“LJ, I’m fine. Don’t worry,” Gavin said, pulling his arm from her grasp and taking the steps up to the house.

After Gavin went through the front door, I spoke first. “Why didn’t you tell me you fainted today? I agree with your dad, you shouldn’t have ridden on a bike after that.”

When she turned back to face us, drops of blood ran from her nose.

Shit. Another nosebleed?

“You’re bleeding,” Carson said, grabbing a tissue from the car for her.

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” She snatched the tissue, put it to her nose, and tilted her face forward. “So what if I fainted earlier? The nurse said it was probably stress and lack of food. Can you believe that they actually thought I was on drugs because I took some freaking Tylenol? We all know that’s not true so there’s no reason to panic.”

“Yes, there is a reason to panic. You could’ve passed out again while you were on the bike, LJ!” Carson said.

I nodded when LJ’s eyes shifted to me. She squinted, searching for something in my eyes, then her lips tipped down. “Fine. I’m sorry,” she conceded to Carson in a squished voice. “Is there anything else?”

“You aren’t working today so just go inside and eat something if you’re hungry, or go lie down. I’ll let Simone know.”

“What? That’s a bit ridiculous, Dad. I’m pretty sure I can plant flower bulbs without hurting myself.”

“It’s probably good idea to rest, LJ,” I agreed with Carson again. There was something going on with her and I wasn’t convinced stress and lack of food were to blame. Regardless of the causes, taking the day off was a good idea. “There isn’t much to do today, anyway.”

“Fine,” she breathed out then glanced at me one final time before picking up her bag and going into the house. She was pissed at both of us.

“I’ve got to say that I’m relieved you didn’t know about her fainting,” Carson said after LJ closed the house door. “I would have second guessed your ability to teach Gavin.”

“I was absent today. That’s why I didn’t know.” His early assumption didn’t irritate me. What did, however, was that he neglected to apologize to LJ for forgetting her. I knew it wasn’t my place to discuss any of their family issues, but I still wanted him to hear it from someone else. “I went in to drop something off. That’s when I saw her alone on the curb. I would’ve waited with her, but she didn’t know how long you’d be.”

His eyes dropped and he let out a sigh. “Thanks. She had her own car last year in Summerlin so I didn’t have to worry about picking them up while I worked. But, I’m moving to the night shift now so as long as I think she’s okay to drive it, she’ll have the Escape during the day. Hopefully, that will help.”

The news affected me more than it should have.
She wouldn’t need a ride again.
I hadn’t even considered asking her yet, but after today I thought she’d like the chance before winter killed all bike activity.

“I guess I should go,” I said and climbed on my bike.

Carson walked up to the door. “I’ll get Gavin some riding boots before this weekend.”

I nodded, started the bike, and drove back to my house.

“Carson came over earlier to tell me LJ couldn’t work today,” Simone said, walking up behind me while I covered another tulip bulb in the front garden. “He didn’t like me questioning him about it.”

I didn’t answer. I knew where this was going. More than likely, in true Simone form, she’d overstepped her bounds by asking something personal and he probably shut the conversation down. She was wired to gather all information involved, even if it crossed an offensive line.

She moved to my side to eye my progress. “Do you think she’d fake something like that to get out of work?”

“What?” I scoffed. “No, of course not.”

“Emily said that she witnessed the incident today and it looked like LJ wanted attention.”

“Wow. That’s pretty low, even for Emily. She was probably wondering why she hadn’t thought of doing something like that herself.”

“No need to get snide,” she said with a small inflection. “I don’t think Emily would lie about something like that.”

“Then I think you are losing your touch, Simone. You’ve obviously been too easy on her because she’s not afraid to feed you crap.” I plugged another bulb, pushed soil over it, and sprayed the entire row with enough water to settle the dirt.

“Then tell me, Ben. You’ve been working with LJ. When do you think the bomb will drop?”

I shook my head. “I think we were being paranoid before. She likes this place.”

“Is there something
going on
that I should know about?” She placed her hands on her hips and scanned the rest of the property.

I laughed. “Right. I’m guessing Emily happily suggested something
was
happening
between LJ and me? Look, Simone. All I know is she hasn’t had one complaint about the job and she’s nicer than I thought she’d be.”

“Has she mentioned selling?”

“Nope,” I said with a shrug. “It didn’t sound like she’s even thought about it. If I hear anything different, I’ll let you know.” The property had the highest of my priorities before, but everything had flipped in just over a week. Now that I’d been around LJ, I was more concerned with the alleged curse than I was about her firing anyone.

“Hmm,” she said to herself, crossing her arms over her white button-down and looking toward LJ’s house. “I guess you’ll be signing for your piece of property soon. What are your plans?”

“I’ll have a couple of good weeks left before winter. I guess I’ll move some dirt around back there for the track.”

“As long as you only ride when no guests are on the property.”

“Nothing will change.”

She glanced around the property, her eyes worrisome. “I hope not,” she said.

“Why don’t you just talk to her?” Spaz said as I stared at LJ from our lunch table the next day.

“What?” I asked, distracted.

“Well, you keep on staring at her like a freaking psycho stalker. You might as well go say hi before she gets a restraining order.” He took a bite of apple, chewing it like a cow.

“Uh!” Iz uttered, smacking him in the arm until he closed his mouth. “While you’re at it, punch her in the head like Spaz did.” She laughed.

“Babe!” Spaz scolded her.

“I thought you said she passed out in front of the table?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

“She passed out then I, uh … I accidentally hit her when I tripped.”

I shook my head and looked back to LJ. At least she hadn’t been hurt too badly. A text book lay wide open in front of her. She took small bites from her sandwich and kept her eyes on the pages. When she reached into her bag, I noticed an earphone cord coming out of her ear. She pulled something from the bag and glanced around stealthily before popping her hand to her mouth. After lunch ended, I didn’t see her again until we started work.

“How are you feeling today?” I asked when she met me at the side garden.

“Not bad. You?” Her voice was clipped. She was still irritated that I’d agreed with her dad yesterday. I wasn’t sure what I could do to change her mind, but I had to figure it out if I wanted to get back on her good side, and back into the basement.

“Good. I heard Gavin wasn’t the only one to take a hit yesterday. It’s a good thing Spaz would be considered a featherweight class if he ever boxed.”

“Yeah,” she replied unamused. “Are we just planting bulbs today?”

I dropped the bag of tulip bulbs and the small spades into the garden’s mulch. “Yup. How’s your head?”

“I’m okay. Do you mind if I listen to music while I work?”

She was more pissed than I thought. She didn’t even want to talk. “No problem. Just watch what I do and continue in rows.” I’d have to think of a better way to fix this.

Carson’s SUV pulled around the drive and parked by their house. We watched Gavin hop out followed by Carson, whose face was redder than it was yesterday.

“I’m serious, Gavin. I have to work, but you are not allowed any games tonight,” Carson said sternly.

“I already told you I didn’t start it. Why am I in trouble?”

LJ walked up the sloped lawn to meet them. “What’s up?”

I listened as I started digging the first set of holes.

“Nothing,” Gavin replied, trying to duck past her to get to the house.

She weaved in front of him so he couldn’t pass. “You got into another fight?”

“I didn’t start it, but I ended it. No one really expected the little rich kid to fight back after yesterday’s pummeling.”

Carson looked at him, crossing his arms over his dark blue scrubs. “I don’t care if someone else started it or not.”

“So you actually fought back?” LJ asked, shocked.

“I’ve been full of surprises lately, right?” Gavin said. “I was ready for another beatdown, but for some reason it felt like I had a chance.” His eyes lit up under yesterday’s bruising and his chest puffed out. He was excited and proud, like he’d never fought before. And he probably hadn’t.

“Who?” LJ asked.

“This kid named Jake. He’s still pissed that his ex-girlfriend, Taylor, said yes about going out with me.”

“Well, you really had no choice, right? You either hit back, or get beat again, right?” she prompted him.

“That’s the thing. I knew it was coming, and I could’ve walked another way after the bell, but, I don’t know. I just manned-up, I guess. I feel like a Spartan or something.” He shrugged.

I laughed under my breath while I planted the first bulb. Carson smirked at Gavin’s statement, but regained his stern look immediately. LJ didn’t laugh, or smile. Her brows knitted together in a troubled expression.